My favorite Patrick Stewart story arose out of a chance encounter. We happened both to be seated on the same flight in the same cabin near one another. I looked over and saw a familiar bald pate and furrowed brow.

“Aren't you…?” I asked him.

He looked over and his face lit up with delight. Then he spoke to me in that unmistakable proper manner of his.

“Well aren't YOU!” he responded, his eyes twinkling.

We had a good laugh. Rest in power—warp power—Sir Patrick Stewart.

Ad astra, Patrick Stewart ✨

I've met many of the cast of Star Trek – The Next Generation over the years, but unfortunately I never had the chance to meet him.

I hope he knew how influential that programme was across astronomy – it's no coincidence that the observatory now known as JWST was originally and for many years called the Next Generation Space Telescope.

My email folder spanning almost thirty years involvement is still named "ngst".

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/oct/29/patrick-stewart-dead

Patrick Stewart, star of stage and 'Star Trek', dies at 86
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/patrick-stewart-star-of-stage-and-star-trek-dies-at-86?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Headlines @headlines-PBSNewsHour

Thirty years of hurt (and eleven years of writing about it) …

Every September, as the melt season on the Greenland ice sheet fizzles out, I and my colleague Martin Stendel do the same thing: we sit down with a year's worth of daily surface mass balance maps and weather charts from the Polar Portal, work out how the ice sheet fared, and write it up as a guest post for Carbon Brief. Our latest one, the 11th in the series covers September 2025 to August 2026 and this…

http://sternaparadisaea.net/2026/10/27/thirty-years-of-hurt-and-eleven-years-of-writing-about-it/

My heart is heavy. Walter Koenig, our Ensign Pavel Chekov, passed away early today.

Walter and I met on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 1960s, and we stayed friends for nearly six decades. When Brad and I married in 2008, Walter stood beside us as our best man. Just last month, on Sept. 14, he turned 90, on the same day Brad and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. I will always treasure that he and I shared that date.

Walter was more than Chekov. He was a writer, a teacher, a thoughtful man, and a loyal friend. To the fans who loved him for so many years, thank you. He loved you too.

Rest well, my dear friend. Keep navigating a steady course.

– George

Today we celebrate. But it won't be easy. Both chambers of Brazil's Congress, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, have shifted to the right.

And our democracies remain under threat.

Let's prepare better for the next battle, in Brazil and elsewhere.

Democracy is about much more than voting.

#Democracy #Brazil #EU #Midterms #FarRight

Some hopeful news from Serbia!

Aleksandar Vučić concedes defeat to a student-led movement in the parliamentary elections, after nearly two years of protests.

A reminder that political change is still possible, even after years of democratic backsliding.

Something to inspire us and keep hope alive.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/serbias-vucic-concedes-defeat-student-led-movement-parliamentary-election-2026-10-25/

Via @anderswoo

#Democracy #Serbia #Brazil

Well that turned out somewhat differently than I thought, about that woman, but I was right about her. I knew immediately he left his bag on the bed, too, before he remembered to go back for it. What happens, happened, and good riddance.

The main characters may be the same and identical, but overall the #jDrama #Suikoden brief storyline/timeline is different in many ways from the #cDrama #WaterMargin fuller original story. It might in part be just the screenwriters doing, editing, or the Japanese adaptation was a reimagine.

Eventually, I'll check the two books.

I'm watching still and the flow has gotten a little better, although I have been watching it at a faster speed. I didn't like that woman that was forcing herself on righteous Song Jiang, so I was glad to see him keep his longheld vow, with an alternative solution for her (she's not so clever afterall).

#cDrama #WaterMargin

I've come to appreciate that #jDrama Kenzo Kitakata: Suikoden (2026) is only 7 episodes, based on the Japanese retelling of the Chinese Ming Dynasty classic novel "Water Margin" (水浒传) attributed to Shi Nai An (施耐庵). This drama briefly tells part of the Song Dynasty story with the character Song Jiang as the main focus (based on the historical figure). It was interesting enough with veteran actors.

Wanting more, I started the #cDrama Water Margin (2011), which is 86 episodes long and very dated and slow paced (at Ep.15). I want to put it on hold but I'm waiting for actor Chen Long to appear as Wu Song. Then I'll switch to the 1998 version, which from the first episode has better flow and more focused storytelling.

#WaterMargin #Suikoden

Funny. Funny, too, I once learned basic ColdFusion.

https://social.mitexleo.one/@ml/117480973434443173
ml@social.mitexleo.one - :)

What a wild quote from the BBC!

“Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi urged people to check if their publicly available websites ran on PHP.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cmly0lg3w5x2o

#PHP

No two ways about it; the eMudhra failure belongs in the category of “things that should never happen”. All that said, it’s not a huge issue for most people. A spoofed TLS certificate is only useful to on-path attachers, typically your ISP or a government. Now, if you use a WiFi hotspot run by dodgy or incompetent people, you have reason to be concerned, but it’s probably not a serious issue for most people.
The PHP problem, however, is another matter entirely. That one affects *all* web sites built on PHP, and there are very many of those. If you run such a site, there are no two ways about it: shut the site down until you can patch.

If you're looking for the most detailed AND *entertaining* way to read about the php2shell bugs, the Calif post is epic: https://calif.io/php2shell/

No, really, these PHP vulns are quite serious and you should drop everything and patch. https://www.php.net/index.php

We have posted more information about today's security releases, including the sequence of events that led to the discovery, how the PHP security team is improving their processes, and what we need from you to continue this critical work. https://thephp.foundation/blog/2026/10/21/todays-php-security-release-and-how-were-strengthening-php-security/
#php #security

Expect quite a few sites to return error pages today and possibly through the week. Here's my piece on the new PHP zero-day that affects about 70 percent of the Internet. We'll be updating the story with important new developments.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/10/widespread-php-flaw-may-cause-many-site-outages-today/

#php #zero-day #security

The Trump admin is trying to claim the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional, and they are allowed to keep secret whatever they want.

Our lawyers were in front of the DC Court of Appeals court yesterday arguing that is ridiculous.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/16/presidential-records-act-arguments-donald-trump

Early voting is surging across the country and the numbers are looking good. Debates are being dominated. Fundraising records are being broken. And millions showed up at No Kings rallies this weekend to make their voices heard. Less than three weeks until Election Day. Let’s keep up the pace! https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/week-progressive-wins-october-18

A few US-based people have reached out, concerned about the "violence" in France.

It's important to realize that French citizens have rights because they are never satisfied, and they protest.

Americans are losing rights because the status quo is "it's the freest country in the world," and they'll go to a no-kings march if it lands on the weekend, the weather is good, and they have no other plans.

Convincing people everything is "exceptional" leads to complacency.
Complaints lead to action.